


Just The Thing

by jadzeanna



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: The Next Generation
Genre: AU where Deanna is the station counselor on DS9, Established Relationship, F/F, Fluff, Super fluffy. Sugary sweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-19
Updated: 2017-11-19
Packaged: 2019-02-04 09:32:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12768087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jadzeanna/pseuds/jadzeanna
Summary: It’s their first anniversary. Finding the right present is hard.





	Just The Thing

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Auroranym](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Auroranym/gifts).



It would be their anniversary in just a short week, and Jadzia had no idea what she was going to get for her girlfriend. Trill culture followed a clearly defined schedule of anniversary presents, and human tradition didn’t appear to have that schedule until after marriage. Before marriage, there was a general consensus that  _something_  should be given to mark important anniversaries, but the nature of that gift was completely ambiguous. And Deanna had seemed somewhat underwhelmed by her birthday present, so it was doubly important that Jadzia get this one  _right_.

She knew Deanna plenty well, but Deanna always seemed to know her better. She would certainly have a perfect gift in mind. It wasn’t a competition. Jadzia could not stand the thought of losing.

She’d have to shop around to find out something Deanna might love half as much as Jadzia loved her. Deanna had spent the most recent significant chunk of her career on the Enterprise. Curzon had known Picard; maybe Jadzia would be able to pull a small favor. She sent a comm message requesting he call her, low priority, and heard back sooner than she expected.

“Jean-Luc!” She effervesced, then saw the confusion on his face. “I mean. Captain. It’s been a while.”

“Excuse me, uh…”

“Dax. Jadzia Dax, but we met when I was Curzon. Diplomatic talks on Sygo IV.”

“Ah. How could I forget? And you’re the new Dax host, I take it.”

“Yep! I know you won’t be in the area for a while, but I wanted to ask you a favor.”

He squinted slightly. “What do you need?”

“Well. Deanna Troi served under you for six years, so I was hoping you’d have a suggestion for a gift idea for her. It’s our anniversary in a week, and I want to get her something really special.”

“You know, I think you should talk to my first officer. He knows her a lot better than I do.” He tapped his combadge. “Picard to Riker, are you busy?”

“Not at all. What’s up?”

“Could I patch a call to you? It’s from Counselor Troi’s girlfriend.”

“Dax, right? No problem. Send it to the console in my quarters.”

“Thank you, number one. Picard out.”

“Thank you, captain. It means a lot.” 

“Of course.” 

Picard pressed some buttons on his desk. On Jadzia’s end, the screen blurred to grey, then focused back in on a man with a dark beard and twinkling blue eyes.

“Let me guess. Your anniversary is coming up.”

“How did you know?”

“Deanna was my best friend for a long time. We keep in touch, and I know she gets very excited about anniversaries.”

Jadzia smiled warmly. “She really does. I’m almost scared to see what she’ll do for my next birthday.”

“She made you The Cake, didn’t she?”

Jadzia nodded. “Remind me  _never_  to try Ambassador Troi’s cooking.”

“Hey, can I ask you something? You’re a joined trill, right? It’s okay to say that, now that the whole symbiont-host thing is common knowledge, right?”

“Yeah. Actually, you might have known me as Curzon Dax up until about five years ago.”

“I was actually joined to a trill symbiont myself, once.”

“Really? I was under the impression humans weren’t compatible.”

“We’re not. I nearly died of graft-versus-host syndrome, but Odan was needed to complete peace talks, and-”

“Wait. You were Odan? I learned about you at the Academy. You opened up Trill culture to the rest of the Federation. It’s been… 300 years. Wow. I still remember how you always used to bring daffodils to council meetings, ‘to brighten the room’.”

His eyebrows raised a little higher with every sentence she spoke. “I’m… not Odan. I was just a host; I don’t even have any memories of the peace talks.”

Jadzia cringed at her own misunderstanding. She should have known, really, after her own incident with Verad. She had lost most of her memories since her joining when she was just Jadzia, but regained them when Dax was returned to her. She mostly tried not to think about that time, to Deanna’s eternal chagrin. Of course she’d forgotten. “Huh. I’m sorry. I’d imagine being joined is a fascinating experience for a human. Hell, it’s fascinating for me, and I spent 25 years preparing for it.”

“It was shocking, but not in the way you’d think.” He pointedly grimaced, at which they both laughed. “Anyway, sorry for getting sidetracked, I just haven’t met any other joined Trill. You were looking for a good gift for Deanna. She loves chocolate, but I’m sure you know that.”

“Yeah. Any favorite kinds?”

“Well, she does love trying new things, so anything particularly rare or unusual is a sure thing.”

Jadzia smiled, remembering a conversation she’d had with Julian a little while back. “I think I know just the thing.”

Garak was folding a set of matching shirts when Jadzia strolled into his shop.

“Commander Dax. What can I do for you today?”

“I was hoping you could do me a bit of a… personal favor.”

Garak’s face fell. “I doubt there’s much I could do for you in that regard.”

“It’s not anything shady. I just remember Julian mentioning that you found a supplier of Delavian chocolates, and I was hoping you could hook me up.”

He smiled again, eyes crinkling inside their cartilaginous cage. “I did promise my supplier I wouldn’t reveal his identity…”

“Then can  _you_  get me some?”

“I’ll put in a request. In the meantime why don’t you look around? I got in several new Tholian fashions recently.” He gestured at a rack. “They aren’t quite to your taste, but I suspect Counselor Troi would love them.”

Jadzia nodded and turned to rifle through the clothes while Garak buried himself at a computer panel against the wall.

A cropped blazer caught her eye, replete with lace and frills but tastefully so, in blue and black and gold that reminded her of the highlights in Deanna’s eyes. She picked it up, held it to herself in the mirror, decided it would definitely complement her girlfriend’s dark eyes and olive skin, and flatter her soft curves.

“An excellent choice. That’s genuine Andorian lace and Tholian silk.”

“I think I’d like to get this for Deanna. You do have her measurements on file, right?”

“Yes. You’re in luck about the chocolates, too. Come back and you can pick up both next Tuesday.”

Jadzia frowned and mentally reviewed her timetable. That would be cutting it a bit close to be ready Wednesday, but it would be doable. “Okay. Tuesday sounds good. Have a wonderful afternoon, Mr. Garak.”

“Oh, I’m just glad I could help. And please, it’s just ‘Garak’.”

Jadzia loved a lot of things. Deanna knew, no matter what, her girlfriend would be absolutely delighted just to celebrate their anniversary. She already had a bottle of fine Betazoid ice wine and had ordered a lovely bouquet from the Promenade florist. They would have a lovely candlelit dinner with their favorite foods. Jadzia already knew about that, though, and Deanna wanted to surprise her. Surprises were impossible on Betazed, but Riker had introduced her to a few very endearing human customs. Jadzia wasn’t human, but she certainly loved surprises as much as anyone.

The hard part was figuring out what to surprise her with. At least Deanna had one advantage. Jadzia may seem to like almost everything, but she could always tell how her girlfriend really felt. 

Today, Jadzia’s aura was tense, and it set Deanna on edge. 

“Darling, are you alright?”

“I’m fine.” Jadzia smiled weakly. “Just not feeling too well. You should go to poker night without me.”

“Come here, love.” Deanna sat on the couch, and gestured for Jadzia to sit to her left. Jadzia lightly rested her head on Deanna’s shoulder, and Deanna wrapped her left arm around Jadzia’s waist, kissed her head, grabbed Jadzia’s left hand in her right and rubbed a thumb against her palm. “I know something’s bothering you,” she murmured into Jadzia’s hair. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Jadzia sighed. “Not really. It’s just been a long day.”

“Maybe having some fun will do you good. Let’s go out, spend time with your friends.”

“What if,” Jadzia raised her head to meet Deanna’s eyes, raised her left hand to brush Deanna’s cheek, brought their faces together, “we don’t  _have_  to go out to have fun?”

Her emotions felt like  _longing_ , and it was flattering and wonderful and so, so warm and tempting. Deanna let herself lean in for a long, sweet kiss, and made sure to enjoy it thoroughly – but she had an agenda for the night that wouldn’t be helped by staying in, so she pulled away. Jadzia whined and posted, but Deanna wouldn’t be deterred, dammit. She wouldn’t. Just one more kiss. Maybe two.

“Let’s go to the poker game. You’ll feel better then.”

Jadzia sighed, but she saw Deanna’s logic. “Alright.”

“Once again, Dax gets all our latinum,” Julian sighed. “Why do we play  _poker_  anyway? There are so many better games where someone else might actually have a chance to win.”

“It’s not about the game,” Deanna replied. “It’s about the social bonds formed over it. It’s about culture, and it’s about tradition. Unless you’d rather play Tongo like a Ferengi.” The last comment was teasingly pointed at Jadzia.

“Julian’s right,” Jadzia chimed in. “It really isn’t fair that I’m just better at it than all of you.”

“How about holosuite games? We also played those a fair amount on the Enterprise. They were less competitive, at least,” Deanna said, then murmured to herself, “well, except when they weren’t.”

“Do you have any recommendations?” Sisko asked her.

Deanna shook her head.

“Remember the game the Wadi delegation abducted us into?” Jadzia sighed softly. “That would be a fun team-building exercise if we could play it again.”

“Chula, I think they called it,” Sisko added. “I still am curious to try it again now that I know we aren’t going to die if we lose.”

And oh, Jadzia was excited, she was positively glowing. Deanna knew that if she could procure a copy of this holosuite game Jadzia would be absolutely thrilled. All that was left was to find a copy.

“Hello, Quark.”

“Counselor! Lovely to see you. Can I get you a drink?”

“Some springwine would be lovely, but I’m here to talk business.”

“Ah, problem with a patient? I have just the thing.”

Deanna rolled her eyes. “That’s illegal, Quark. I’m trying to get a copy of a board game. I heard you played Chula at first contact with the Wadi?”

Quark shushed her, looked around to make sure nobody was listening, then leaned in and murmured, “I’m sure you’re aware that the Wadi are very reluctant to part with their technology, and dealing with them runs a risk of jeopardizing already tense relations with the Dominion.”

Deanna knew how to deal with Ferengi, and knew what this meant: she needed to offer him something in exchange to make it worth the risk. She made her best attempt at a sneaky smile, leaned in, looked from under her eyelashes, dropped her voice to just above a whisper, just like she’d practiced. “You know, as a daughter of the fifth house, heir to the holy rings of Betazed, et cetera et cetera, I have access to a lot of… rare and valuable  _objets d’art_.”

“I’m listening.”

“I have a tenth century Nova statue that I happen to be willing to part with. That’s almost a kilogram of sapphire and emerald.” Deanna was admittedly poor at reading body language, but he certainly seemed more interested. “It’s yours if you can get the game for me.”

“Well, just because diplomacy is tense doesn’t mean there aren’t back roads. I’ll see what I can do.”

“You’d better. Next Tuesday, no later. We have a deal?”

“How do I know you really have it?”

“I’ll bring it by tomorrow, say, 1900? You can inspect the statue, but you can’t have it until you get me a working Chula board and holosuite program. Oh, and I’ll expect you to have figured things out with your ‘back roads’ by then.” She sipped the rest of her springwine in one, fluid motion, put the glass down, and stood up. “Do we have a deal?”

“We have a deal.”

“Good,” she curtly replied, then pivoted on her heels and walked away, smiling to herself. There were other preparations to make, after all.

Dinner was wonderful. Jadzia had ordered real food from Quark’s, and Deanna had lit candles and put on the most wonderful Vulcan impressionist chants for atmosphere. They ate, and laughed, and marveled over how it had already been a year. It simultaneously felt like no time at all and like they’d known each other forever.

After dinner, they retired to the couch, each with a glass of ice wine in hand. Jadzia stopped by a table on her way to the couch and took two small wrapped parcels from a bag. One was a box, wrapped in yellow paper; the other was a flat, shifting mass wrapped in dark blue. She handed them to Deanna, whose face lit up.

“I got a couple things for you, for our anniversary.”

“Hmm, I think I’ll open this one first. It’s soft.” She unwraped the blue parcel, unfolded the jacket, examined it, tried it on, ran to look in the mirror, spun around. “It’s lovely.”

Jadzia gave her the once-over and smirked. “Not just the jacket.”

“Oh, hush. What’s in the other package?”

“Open it and find out.”

This one was a box, and inside… “Delavian chocolates? No way. They’re one of my favorites. How did you know?”

“I have my ways.” Jadzia smiled, leaned back, and folded her arms, waiting for Deanna to laugh or tease her or change the subject. She wasn’t expecting her to climb into her lap. Deanna could tell by the way she quickly switched from  _smug self-satisfaction_ to  _surprise and excitement_. 

“Do your  _ways_  involve gleaning my deepest,  _darkest_ secrets from people I knew on the Enterprise?”

Ding ding ding. “I might have asked Commander Riker for help, but that’s just because I wanted to come up with a gift that was worthy of you.”

“Sweet talking will get you nowhere,” Deanna teased. “Actually, I have a present for you, too.”

“Ooh, what is it?”

Deanna got out of Jadzia’s lap and went to bring a small gift-wrapped box out of the closet.

“Happy anniversary.”

She unwrapped it slowly, careful not to rip the artfully folded paper. Inside was an isolinear rod and a box covered in buttons. She pressed a few buttons until suddenly their coffee table turned into a three dimensional, inverted stack of triangles. Recognition gradually dawned on her face, as awe dawned in her heart.

“How did you—? I tried to get one of these, but the Wadi wouldn’t—that’s amazing. Thank you.” Jadzia leaned in to kiss Deanna on the cheek, the corner of her mouth, then to kiss her properly and deeply on the lips.

Deanna felt that element of shock and delight in Jadzia’s aura that was a sign that a surprise went well, and she positively basked in it, kissing her back sweetly and thoroughly. 

When they pulled away, Deanna commented, “I hear it’s rather a long game, and two people isn’t enough players. I hope you don’t mind waiting for a better time to try it out.”

“Not at all. I was thinking of turning in soon, actually.”

Deanna leaned in so her cheek was gently resting against Jadzia’s chest, and idly played with Jadzia’s hand. “Are you sure you don’t want to try out the chocolates first?” 

Jadzia buried her nose in Deanna’s curls. “They’re for you. Plus I’d really rather get you in my arms than some chocolate.”

“You make a very convincing argument.” Deanna stood up, took their glasses to the reclamation unit, and pressed the button to disintegrate them, then paused and gazed over at where Jadzia was still sitting. “Thank you for the gifts. It means a lot to me.”

“ _You_  mean a lot to me. Don’t you forget that.”

What she meant, of course, was ‘I love you’. Deanna knew. It was as obvious as the spots on her face. And somehow Jadzia kept trying to prove it, trying to make sure Deanna knew how she felt, even though that was one thing she would never have to worry about. Deanna would always know what was in Jadzia’s heart. All that was left was to make sure Jadzia knew the same.

Deanna grabbed Jadzia’s hand and tugged her gently toward the bedroom. She knew just the thing to get her own feelings across.

**Author's Note:**

> Idea courtesy of Auroranym and Enterprise 1x11 "Silent Enemy".
> 
> I make playlists for all my fics, so if you have a song rec for me to add, drop it in the comment box!


End file.
